The Arcadia Files

May 10, 2011

Every boat owner has in the back of their mind ways to improve the old girl and make sailing faster and more fun. Gordie Nash and Ruth Suzuki had that idea a few years ago and the result is the Modified Santana 27 Arcadia. "I talked to Gary Mull at lunch one day about the idea of taking an existing boat and modernizing it to meet our needs of a simpler and faster boat for Ruth and I to doublehand. Gary pulled out a placemat and started drawing things that can be done: plumb bow, extended transom, bulb keel…

Empress before she became Arcadia at the Stockton Sailing Club. ©2011 Gordon Nash

"About a month later I found the right candidate in a Santana 27 in Stockton, and called Gary up to let him know that I may have found a boat. I talked to his wife, and she said I'm sorry Gary died." So Gordie had to go it on his own with help from friends and a do-it-yourself yard.

Empress at Schoonmaker in Sausalito before the saws came out. ©2011 Gordon Nash

"I placed the boat in the mud at Schoonmaker in Sausalito and we started getting to work. The first thing was getting the Sawzall out and start cutting." Mull's original Ideas were used, so a plumb bow was built. A sugar scoop transom was added to extend the waterline length. Gordie wanted a lifting bulb keel, so he had to design and build one. All a lot of work but it seems the gang had fun while building her.

This is one way to change your boat's name. ©2011 Gordon Nash

The start of the transom was easy. ©2011 Gordon Nash

Getting nearly done with the transom. ©2011 Gordon Nash

Hacking off pieces of bow to start making it plumb. ©2011 Gordon Nash

Plumb bow with a hole for the articulating sprit in the middle. ©2011 Gordon Nash

Meanwhile, the original idea of keeping it a good husband-and-wife doublehanded boat stayed on track. "A lot of the modifications were to make the boat easier for Ruth to sail. We put a box in the cockpit for her to stand on while building to try out different winch positions and heights to make sure she could grind comfortably. The tiller was set up so I can drive, do the main and backstay without reaching around too much, and she does the rest. All of the controls have enough purchase to let Ruth pull on them easily."

Some of the measurements are old school and simple. "When it came to figuring out where the keel and rig should go I used an old Gary Mull method: Cut out the design from a piece of cardboard and find the center of effort by balancing it on a pencil. It gets you in the ballpark."

Gordie figured out the rig early on. "I always wanted a fractional rig with swept-back spreaders. It took me awhile to come up with the sail plan though." He has a lot of drawings of failed sail designs in the Arcadia files.

Notes and rudder design in the Arcadia book. All of the build and race history are written down. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

Then came launch day to see if she'd float. "We put her in the water and everything seemed to line up right." They did a little more measuring and set up before they were ready for the first sail.

First float and all looks well. ©2011 Gordon Nash

"We put up the sails and went right along on starboard tack and everything was working. Then we said let's see what she does on the other tack, went on port, and smoke started pouring out the companionway. It turns out the battery slid out and shorted. I thought we were burning the boat down." They got it fixed and the next step was a race.

"Tiburon Yacht Club was having a Doublehanded race so Ruth and I decided to sail over to Paradise Cay. We were supposed to be at the race at 1100, but we were having so much fun sailing around we were a hour late to the line."

Anyone who races on the Bay these days know of Arcadia and Gordie and Ruth, and probably know that they are hard to beat. Both are excellent sailors and well liked in the community. We now know they are also very crafty in boat design and building.

Arcadia at the Golden Gate YC Seaweed Soup Regatta in 2010. She would go on to win the series. ©2011 norcalsailing.com

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